On March 22, 2007 (revised on May 21, 2007), U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell certified a plaintiff class in In re Vivendi Universal S.A. Securities Litigation, 02-Civ-5571 (RJH), an action asserting claims against Defendants Vivendi Universal S.A., Jean-Marie Messier (former CEO) and Guillaume Hannezo (former CFO). Plaintiffs generally allege that Defendants violated the federal securities laws by making false and misleading statements concerning Vivendi’s liquidity and overall performance between October 30, 2000, and August 14, 2002 (the “Relevant Period”). The class consists of all persons from the United States, France, England and the Netherlands who purchased or otherwise acquired ordinary shares or American Depository Shares of Vivendi Universal during the Relevant Period. Defendants have since moved for reconsideration of Judge Holwell’s class certification Order, currently sub judice.

Labaton Sucharow LLP represents institutional investors located in Canada, France, Ireland and Italy and other countries who, having purchased Vivendi stock or American Depository Shares during the Relevant Period, have either opted out of or been excluded from the Vivendi class action (the “Individual Plaintiffs”). Pursuant to a December 14, 2007 Order, the actions brought by Labaton Sucharow on behalf of Individual Plaintiffs have been consolidated with class claims for all purposes.

The Individual Plaintiffs bring this action as a result of their purchase and acquisition of Vivendi ordinary shares and American Depository Shares in the open market during the Relevant Period and pursuant to an October 30, 2000 registration statement and prospectus issued in connection with the three-way merger of Vivendi, S.A., The Seagram Company Limited and Canal Plus. During the Relevant period Defendants reported strong revenue and earnings and portrayed Vivendi as a company that was generating sufficient cash flow to satisfy its debt obligations—approximately $21 billion in debt amassed from financing $77 billion in acquisitions. Subsequent events confirmed that these acquired entities could not generate sufficient cash flow to justify their high acquisition cost. Consequently, Vivendi’s balance sheet was bloated with tens of billions of dollars of inflated “goodwill,” the value of which had been materially impaired. Vivendi’s improper accounting included failing to take timely write-offs of over €29 billion in goodwill associated with Vivendi’s acquisitions, and other violations of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“U.S. GAAP”). Vivendi also engaged in a variety of improper revenue recognition and expense deflating practices, to inflate its reported financial performance. These practices included, inter alia, reporting and consolidating into its own financial statements billions of dollars of revenue from entities in which Vivendi held only a minority stake and which Vivendi did not control (such as Cegetel and Maroc Telecom), in violation of U.S. GAAP and recognizing 100% of the revenue “upfront” (i.e., in contract year one) on billions of dollars of multi-year contracts in a practice known as “booking backlog,” even though Vivendi had not yet performed its obligations under those multi-year contracts and U.S. GAAP required that the revenue on such contracts be recognized ratably over time.

The revelation of Defendants’ fraud resulted in devastating drops in the prices of Vivendi’s ordinary shares traded on the Paris Bourse and ADSs traded on the NYSE, the Company’s de-listing from the NYSE, an onslaught of civil litigation, investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and French regulatory authorities; and the imposition of a massive civil fine by the SEC. The disclosure of Defendants’ fraud also caused a precipitous decline in the trading prices of Vivendi securities. Overall, the Company’s ADSs lost 85% of their value from a high, during the Period, of $75.50, and its ordinary shares fell 83.9% from their Period high of €86.50.

Pursuant to a January 7, 2008 Scheduling Order, In re Vivendi Universal moves full steam ahead through discovery toward trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Trial is scheduled to commence October 14, 2008. Labaton Sucharow is in the process of analyzing over 4 million documents produced by Defendants as well as third party investment banks. Defendants’ motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment are expected June 15, 2008.